Hi everyone, been a lurker around here for a while now, and after seeing so many great builds, I finally signed up and this is my first post. Just getting back into modelling after a very slow past few years for me in the hobby, but I wouldn't necessarily say I've been completely out, just not had a dedicated work space until recently. 
Anywho, onto what we all really want to hear about, the model!!
So, I was in my nearest (not exactly local) hobby shop the other day and I finally saw the new Airfix p-51 on the shelf. Well, I've been eyeballing this kit since I first heard of its coming existence a couple years ago, so needless to say I snatched it up and didn't set it down again until I was at the checkout counter. So far I am very impressed with this kit. Very well detailed, mostly sharp molding (some detail is just a tad soft) and excellent engineering. Seeing how some things fit together and somewhat unconventionally and with excellent fit is really exciting to me. I have the interior about 90% complete and am almost ready to start closing the fuselage. Hopefully I can get pictures up of where I am at right now. Would love to hear what you guys think and I will gladly answer any questions.
Port sidewall detail. Added two cables forward of the throttle quadrant from stretched sprue.
Painted with model master acrylics and washed/highlighted with artists oils.
Starboard sidewall. Still want to add a few white wires here before I seal it up. OOTB at the moment. I did half heartedly fill the the ejector pin marks on both sidewalls with a little Mr. Surfacer 1000, and is not really noticeable once sealed up, but as you know, the camera reveals all sins, lol.
Tried to get a decent shot at the instrument panel. It was painted model master acryl flat black followed by Vallejo gloss clear. The instruments are the kit decal after several coats of micro sol. It worked very very well I think. I would prick the decal with a new #11 blade once it was in place to allow the inevitable trapped air out. Let dry, check for any problem areas, repeat as necessary. I picked out details with testors gloss red and white oil paint. I even tried to create labels/ placards as best I could with the same red and white mentioned above. Except for the placard at the top, which was already on the decal, all others were hand painted. I even tried replicating the landing gear position lights at the bottom of the main instruments by drilling two holes and inserting tiny pieces of stretched clear sprue, then painting one clear red and the other clear green. It turned out to be for nothing, as it can barely be seen, but oh well!
View of the seat. I did not do any modifications to this, as I am trying very hard to make this a mostly ootb build, as I usually suffer from bad AMS. Painted the seat fs 34092 for an approximation of bronze green. The shoulder belts need a bit of white touch up still. Also tried painting the stitching with black oil paint. The seat armor was painted the same color as the seat. Dunno if it is correct, but I figured it made for a nice contrast to the rest of the interior.
View of the rear radiator. Painted flat black then very gently buffed with silver rub and buff. The trick is to use a miniscule amount, and to have a flat finish for it to grab onto. I am going to use alclad for the overall finish, but I didn't have it on hand yet when I built this area. No biggie, it's just the interior bit and mostly hidden. Very shiny though, notice the radiator reflecting slightly on the surface behind it.
Front radiator, treated same as the rear one. Very nice detail. Also, I do realize that there is an ejector pin mark clearly seen in this picture, but after checking the fit and peering inside, I determined it would not be visible, therefore didn't bother trying to fill and sand them. (There are two, one on each side)
This is the starboard vent fairing faired in with a smidge of milliput. The fit was pretty good, but left a tiny gap, same for the opposite side as well. Less than a minute to fix this, not a big deal.
Showing both vertical stabilizer halves glued in place. No filler needed! (Almost) There was one tiny spot you may be able to see in the last pic where the panel lines form a "+". There was a pin hole I could see light shining through, so added a sliver of milliput. Other than that, these were glued on with tamiya extra thin and align carefully checked while it cured. These have not even been sanded yet. Excellent fit, and as much as I can tell, test fitting shows that no filler may be needed for the halves after being joined. The only thing I was sort of scratching my head over is the two tail options Airfix give you in this kit. I can not tell the difference at all, panel line for panel line. They both also seem to be slightly offset of the centerline as to the best of my knowledge is correct for the p-51. I am no expert on this airframe and honestly haven't looked much into this area. The only thing I notice different about the two options is that on the parts the tell you to use, the fastener/rivet detail is not even aligned properly around the fairing for the horizontal stabilizers, as if it were a mold defect. Needless to say, I used the other parts as the detail here looked much better and correctly molded.
Last pic for now. Just showing what the office area will look like closed up. Also the nicely represented wheel well area, for now with just a coat of mm chromate green over flat black. I also added wires to the radio behind the seat from white painted lead wire.
So, that's it for now, just waiting for my book on VLR mustang to come in the mail. I will be painting this as an aircraft from the 46th Fighter Squadron flying from Iwo Jima in 1945. Thanks for looking and hopefully I'll have some more to show soon.
Anywho, onto what we all really want to hear about, the model!!
So, I was in my nearest (not exactly local) hobby shop the other day and I finally saw the new Airfix p-51 on the shelf. Well, I've been eyeballing this kit since I first heard of its coming existence a couple years ago, so needless to say I snatched it up and didn't set it down again until I was at the checkout counter. So far I am very impressed with this kit. Very well detailed, mostly sharp molding (some detail is just a tad soft) and excellent engineering. Seeing how some things fit together and somewhat unconventionally and with excellent fit is really exciting to me. I have the interior about 90% complete and am almost ready to start closing the fuselage. Hopefully I can get pictures up of where I am at right now. Would love to hear what you guys think and I will gladly answer any questions.
Port sidewall detail. Added two cables forward of the throttle quadrant from stretched sprue.
Painted with model master acrylics and washed/highlighted with artists oils.
Starboard sidewall. Still want to add a few white wires here before I seal it up. OOTB at the moment. I did half heartedly fill the the ejector pin marks on both sidewalls with a little Mr. Surfacer 1000, and is not really noticeable once sealed up, but as you know, the camera reveals all sins, lol.
Tried to get a decent shot at the instrument panel. It was painted model master acryl flat black followed by Vallejo gloss clear. The instruments are the kit decal after several coats of micro sol. It worked very very well I think. I would prick the decal with a new #11 blade once it was in place to allow the inevitable trapped air out. Let dry, check for any problem areas, repeat as necessary. I picked out details with testors gloss red and white oil paint. I even tried to create labels/ placards as best I could with the same red and white mentioned above. Except for the placard at the top, which was already on the decal, all others were hand painted. I even tried replicating the landing gear position lights at the bottom of the main instruments by drilling two holes and inserting tiny pieces of stretched clear sprue, then painting one clear red and the other clear green. It turned out to be for nothing, as it can barely be seen, but oh well!
View of the seat. I did not do any modifications to this, as I am trying very hard to make this a mostly ootb build, as I usually suffer from bad AMS. Painted the seat fs 34092 for an approximation of bronze green. The shoulder belts need a bit of white touch up still. Also tried painting the stitching with black oil paint. The seat armor was painted the same color as the seat. Dunno if it is correct, but I figured it made for a nice contrast to the rest of the interior.
View of the rear radiator. Painted flat black then very gently buffed with silver rub and buff. The trick is to use a miniscule amount, and to have a flat finish for it to grab onto. I am going to use alclad for the overall finish, but I didn't have it on hand yet when I built this area. No biggie, it's just the interior bit and mostly hidden. Very shiny though, notice the radiator reflecting slightly on the surface behind it.
Front radiator, treated same as the rear one. Very nice detail. Also, I do realize that there is an ejector pin mark clearly seen in this picture, but after checking the fit and peering inside, I determined it would not be visible, therefore didn't bother trying to fill and sand them. (There are two, one on each side)
This is the starboard vent fairing faired in with a smidge of milliput. The fit was pretty good, but left a tiny gap, same for the opposite side as well. Less than a minute to fix this, not a big deal.
Showing both vertical stabilizer halves glued in place. No filler needed! (Almost) There was one tiny spot you may be able to see in the last pic where the panel lines form a "+". There was a pin hole I could see light shining through, so added a sliver of milliput. Other than that, these were glued on with tamiya extra thin and align carefully checked while it cured. These have not even been sanded yet. Excellent fit, and as much as I can tell, test fitting shows that no filler may be needed for the halves after being joined. The only thing I was sort of scratching my head over is the two tail options Airfix give you in this kit. I can not tell the difference at all, panel line for panel line. They both also seem to be slightly offset of the centerline as to the best of my knowledge is correct for the p-51. I am no expert on this airframe and honestly haven't looked much into this area. The only thing I notice different about the two options is that on the parts the tell you to use, the fastener/rivet detail is not even aligned properly around the fairing for the horizontal stabilizers, as if it were a mold defect. Needless to say, I used the other parts as the detail here looked much better and correctly molded.
Last pic for now. Just showing what the office area will look like closed up. Also the nicely represented wheel well area, for now with just a coat of mm chromate green over flat black. I also added wires to the radio behind the seat from white painted lead wire.
So, that's it for now, just waiting for my book on VLR mustang to come in the mail. I will be painting this as an aircraft from the 46th Fighter Squadron flying from Iwo Jima in 1945. Thanks for looking and hopefully I'll have some more to show soon.
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